Heat
by Enigmatic Tathren
Summary: Heat, tempers, rash words, and an accidentally broken promise- What does this have to do with Hunter, Shawn, and desperate attempt to finish three things before the show starts? Not slash!


**Disclaimer: I don't own… well, anything or anyone in this story.**

**A/N: Started before the 2008 draft, so the Raw roster is the way it was before then. Written for the June challenge on the MCI Lost Horizons board (the topic was "heat").**

To say the heat was unbearable would have been an understatement. Despite the fact that it was currently the hottest day on record for the city, the Raw superstars still might have been able to deal with the heat. After all, they were going to be performing in an arena that recently had a state-of-the-art air conditioning system installed, since the summers in this area were known to be brutal. Many of the divas and superstars had had the same idea- get to the arena early and just kill time until the show started. Yet things rarely end up going completely as planned and while the superstars managed to get to the arena without any major incidents, they didn't find the luxurious, cool arena they had expected to find.

"Wait, what's going on?" Melina asked as soon as she stepped into the arena. "Wasn't this place supposed to have this awesome air conditioning system?"

"That's what we were told," Randy Orton said as he came up behind her. "Why isn't it turned on? It's not like we're the first people here…" As if to emphasize his point, a WWE worker walked by, most likely on his way to double check something for the show that night.

A small crowd of superstars was starting to form around the entrance as more and more wrestlers showed up at the arena. They had been expecting to find the perfect place to relax for a few hours where they wouldn't die from heatstroke. Instead, it was barely cooler inside the arena than it was outside and none of them were particularly happy to find this out.

Shawn silently stared at the group, becoming more and more concerned as it continued to grow. There weren't any problems or fights starting now, but he knew that the longer they stood there the quicker they would lose their patience; high temperatures always meant high tempers. "Look, why don't we all put our stuff in the locker rooms," he suggested. "Then someone can go see if they can find out why the AC hasn't been turned on it."

While this suggestion was the most logical one, there was still a fair amount of grumbling about it. First some of the divas didn't even want to move, and then some of the guys didn't like the idea of staying in the locker rooms while someone else ran around trying to find answers, though of course none of them volunteered to go themselves. It took several threats, the arrival of the Champ, and both Hunter and Shawn agreeing to go find out what was going on before everyone would agree to move to the locker rooms.

Still, having them agree to move and actually getting them to move were two completely different things. No one would ever guess, just by watching these guys on TV, that most of the divas, and quite a few of the superstars, had perfected the art of whining. This time threatening just didn't do the job; a couple of light punches were thrown before the group finally began moving to where the locker rooms were.

Shawn and Hunter, having unofficially been put in charge, made sure everyone got settled down in the right locker room before they headed out, though luckily there weren't any fights that had to be dealt with first. However, their coworker's temporarily good natures were not enough to make up for the fact that they were still the ones who had to find someone that could tell them what was going on with the AC and unfortunately, they had no idea where to start looking.

"You know," Hunter said after they had been wandering around for a couple of minutes without seeing anyone. "Those guys are most likely going to listen to us and stay in the locker room, what with Cena and Hardy and whoever else constantly threatening them back there."

Shawn frowned. "So?"

"So what's the point in actually trying to find someone to help?"

Shawn glanced over at his friend. His friend had that same, slightly-mischievous smile on his face that he was constantly wearing a year ago when they were in DX again. He resisted the urge to groan and roll his eyes; instead, he stayed calm and said, "You know we can't do that."

"And why not?"

"Because there are more of them then there are of us," Shawn reminded him. "And I doubt if even Cena will be on our side if he finds out that we weren't actually trying to figure out what's going on, especially with him after your title right now."

"Well who says that they ever need to know?"

Now Shawn did roll his eyes. "I'm never going to win this, am I?" He sighed. "Look, we'll go do something if, and only if, we do ask what's going on if we happen to run into someone."

Hunter's face split into a wide grin, but before he could even open his mouth to suggest something else they could do they heard someone behind them ask, "What the hell are you two doing here this early?"

It was Hunter's turn to roll his eyes as he turned around to face his boss. "Mr. McMahon. I could ask you the same thing."

Mr. McMahon narrowed his eyes slightly. "Unlike you two I have work I need to do here."

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but most of the Raw roster is here right now," Shawn told him.

"Why is everyone here now?" Mr. McMahon was frowning, as if trying to think of a plausible reason as to why all of his wrestlers would be here this earlier.

"None of us felt like overheating before the show tonight, so we came here expecting to find the state-of-the-art air conditioning system we were promised and speaking of which, why isn't it turned on?"

Mr. McMahon laughed. "Do you think I'd be working here with the AC off? No, it's not turned off, it's _broken_." With that he pushed past them, planning on just strutting off, but Hunter grabbed his wrist as he went by.

"We have a locker room full of guys waiting for us to turn the damn AC on for them and we can't do that," he growled. "What the hell are we supposed to do now?"

Mr. McMahon wrenched his arm away from Hunter. "I don't give a damn what you do!" He snapped. "Lie to them, leave the arena, beat them up, jump in a lake, watch a movie, reunite DX for all I care! Do whatever the hell you want, but let me go so I can finish my work!" He glared at Hunter and Shawn one more time before turning away and storming off down the hall.

Shawn sighed and pulled out his cell phone. "There is no way I'm going back to the locker room and telling them the air conditioning is broken," he muttered as he dialed a number. "Hello? Yeah, John, it's me… Well see, we ran into Mr. McMahon… No, the AC isn't being turned on… It's not that we didn't try, it's just broken… Look can you just tell the others what's going on… Come on, why not…"

Hunter grabbed the phone from his friend. "Cena, turn the volume up all the way… Good, now tell everyone to shut up… They're quiet? Good, now hold the phone out…" Hunter took a deep breath and yelled, "THE DAMN AC IS BROKEN AND WON'T BE TURNED ON ANYTIME SOON!" With that, The Game hung up and calmly handed the phone back to Shawn. "Problem solved."

Shawn chuckled as he took the phone and put it away. "So what do we do now? We can't go back to the locker room without taking the chance of being killed, we can't leave the building without being fried- there's no way we can win!"

"Or maybe we can…" Hunter said, half to himself. "Remind me what Vince said we could do."

Shawn frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Humor me. What did Vince say we could do?"

"Lie to them… sneak out of the arena… no wait, it was leave the arena… beat them up, was that the one you were talking about? No? Okay… He also said we could… jump in a lake or watch a movie." Shawn paused for a moment to think. "I think that's it."

Hunter grinned. "There was one more, Shawn."

Shawn continued to frown for a few moments before, slowly, a grin spread across his face. "What do we need to do?" He asked.

The grin never left Hunter's face as he began listing the things they needed to do. "One- We need to talk to the guys at the ring about setting up our surprise for Vince and the pyros for when we come out. Two- Hunt down our old ring gear. Three- Find two large buckets and fill them with ice. Four… I don't think there is a four yet, but we'll come up with something."

"You came up with that list pretty quickly," Shawn said with a small laugh as he began walking towards the ring. "Or have you been planning this for awhile?"

"This in particular, no. A DX reunion in general… I've thought about it a couple of times, but there haven't been any good opportunities now."

"How far are we going to take it, though?" Shawn asked. "A full-blown DX reunion or just a one night reunion like we've done a couple of times in the past?"

Hunter hesitated for a few moments before answering. "I don't know, Shawn. Right now it's just… I mean, I don't think…" He couldn't find the right words to say what he wanted to. He was the WWE champion and there was always someone waiting to take that title away from him. Being in DX was always great; it was him and Shawn and free reign of the show. They didn't care what they should or shouldn't do, just what they wanted to do. He knew that he couldn't focus on both DX and the title, but what he couldn't tell Shawn was that right now the title would come first.

"Don't worry about it. I mean, with Jericho and Batista after me right now, DX wouldn't really work out," Shawn told him, correctly guessing what he was getting at.

"Once everything's calmed down for us we can get a DX reunion to work out," Hunter promised.

"Sounds like a plan then," Shawn said with a grin.

The two of them fell silent for the last few minutes it took for them to reach where the ring was set up and then it was Hunter who spoke first. "Hey, is anyone not doing anything right now?" There were a few disbelieving snorts from the men working, but a couple of them stopped what they were doing and came over to here what Hunter and Shawn had to say.

"We need your help setting up a surprise for Vince…" Hunter began, but he was instantly cut off by one of the men.

"No. Absolutely not."

"Why not? You've helped us in the past!"

"Yes, but in the past you two have been the top dogs on Raw and, not saying you aren't anymore, but DX isn't even together right now and if Vince found out we helped you set this up he'll kill us. At least before we knew that we had both of your protection!"

"But Vince practically gave us permission to reunite DX!" The man in charge just stared at Hunter, as if daring him to try to prove it. "Shawn… a little help here…" Hunter muttered.

"Sorry, I think my phone was recording our run in with Vince earlier," Shawn said. "You know I have no idea how the video thing works on my phone and I can't figure out how to delete it."

"No, no, don't delete it!" Hunter grabbed the phone from his friend, pushed a couple of buttons, and shoved it under the man's nose. It didn't exactly show Vince in the video, but there was no mistaking that voice as the chairman of the WWE snapped, _"Lie to them, leave the arena, beat them up, jump in a lake, watch a movie, reunite DX for all I care! Do whatever the hell you want, but let me go so I can finish my work!"_

After the video was done, Hunter closed the phone and handed it back to his friend. "Now will you help us?"

Even with six or so men, including Hunter and Shawn, working to set up the surprise for Vince it took several hours before it was completely ready, mainly because there was a last-minute, frantic hunt for the main part of the surprise, since Hunter and Shawn had forgotten to pick it up before they went down to the ring. Luckily they had other people hastily setting up their pyros so they would be ready before the show. They were running out of time though, so the moment it was finished they were running off to finish their next task, taking only a brief moment to yell "Thanks!" over their shoulder to the men who had helped them set everything up.

Luckily for them, it was easier for them to hunt down their old ring gear. Most of the superstars carried their own ring gear with them, but the clothing coordinator usually had extras, just in case they lost theirs or something went wrong. Ever since the reunion of DX back in 2006, they've also had spare DX ring gear, just in case there was a last-minute reunion for one night, since Hunter and Shawn rarely had their gear with them whenever this happens. The only reason it took awhile to get everything was because the poor people in charge of everyone's outfits didn't know where the DX gear had been snatched. Eventually, however, they were able to walk out with their shirts and hats for later that night, though they waited to put them on; they didn't want anyone, even their coworkers, to know of the reunion until their music started up. They also grabbed their old pants, on the off chance that there would be enough time to change into them.

The ice was going to be a different problem. Raw was about to start and Cena was going to start the show off, which meant that Hunter needed to be ready to come down should the opportunity arise. Still, they were quickly running out of time and it would be faster for both of them to go, despite the fact that Hunter would be going down to the ring in soon. They found two buckets in a closet full of cleaning supplies on their way to get the ice and somehow managed to fill them up and get back a few minutes before Hunter, and ultimately Shawn, were even going to go out. They quickly threw on the shirts and hats, set the pants off to the side, and waited for Cena to finish his speech.

Cena was playing up to the crowd, getting them hyped up for the match at the next pay-per-view which, according to him, would be when he won the WWE championship from Hunter. It was the same type of talk that went on before every pay-per-view and, like usual, it wasn't long before it was time for the current champion to go out. Yet when Hunter's music started playing, he hesitated. He glanced over at Shawn, who was frowning as well; this wasn't part of their plan. Both of them were supposed to be going out now. Hunter quickly took off the shirt and hat, grabbed a mic, and stepped out into the arena.

"You know, it's funny what happens when you forget to do something," Hunter said from the top of the ramp as his music cut off. "I had three things I needed to do before the show today. Well, actually four things, but considering the first thing was only yelling at Cena down there, it didn't stay on my list very long." The crowd cheered, while Cena glared at Hunter and started yelling at him, though no one heard what he was saying because the microphone was just hanging from his hand at his side.

"Four things," Hunter repeated. "I needed to get something ready for later on in the show. I needed to find some long-lost clothing of mine. And I needed to find a whole shitload of ice. Seems pretty simple, doesn't it? But on my way out here I realized that there was a fourth thing that I forgot to do."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Cena asked, his question getting mixed reaction from the crowd.

"The fourth thing was talking to the sound guys about a change in music for tonight," Hunter said. For once his comment didn't get any strong crowd reaction, since no one was really quite sure what he was talking about. "So I need to go do that and when I'm done I'll come back out and talk some more." His music didn't start up again as he walked backstage; the sound guys apparently didn't want to piss him off for playing the "wrong music" again.

He found Shawn waiting for him as soon as he got backstage. "I told you I'd come up with a fourth thing, didn't I?" He joked. "Guess we actually should talk to the sound guys though."

"Uh, aren't you forgetting something, Hunter?" Shawn asked as he followed his friend down the hall.

"What?"

"Aren't the sound guys in the production truck?"

"So?"

Shawn sighed. "And weren't we banned from the production truck because of the last time we went in there?"

"Yes, but last time we didn't have proof that Vince told us we could reform DX." Hunter grinned at his friend and kept walking. "Don't worry, the guys in the truck aren't going to do anything."

However, the guys working in the truck had a different idea. "You aren't allowed to be here," the man said when they knocked on the door.

"Can you pass a message onto the sound guys then and let them know that they need to play DX's music when we call them?" Hunter asked.

The man narrowed his eyes. "Why should I trust you? Last time you nearly lost us our jobs!"

Shawn winced. "But hey, it made for a great show…"

"Look, we have Vince's permission to reform DX!" Hunter said. Shawn pulled out his phone and passed it to Hunter, who played the video for the second time that day.

The man watched it, hesitated, but finally sighed and nodded. "Alright, give us a call when you want the music played and we'll do it." With that he stepped back into the truck and started to close the door, but Hunter grabbed onto it and held it open.

"If we send you that video can you at least play the sound portion of it?" He asked. "At the usual part, after the millions watching at home."

"Yeah, sure, whatever, just get out of here," The man said. Hunter stepped back and let go of the door, allowing the man to close it. Hunter quickly sent the video to the guys in the truck before tossing the phone back over to Shawn.

"It's still too damn hot out here," Hunter muttered. "Let's go back inside- not like it's too much cooler in there. Damn AC breaking…"

The two of them made their way back inside where, after getting changed into their gear, they waited for the right opportunity to go out. They asked one of the guys working behind stage when Mr. McMahon was supposed to go out and, after being told that he would be going out in ten minutes, they called the production truck and told them to prepare to play their music in ten minutes. They would be interrupting Orton's match, but since they had been fighting Rated RKO when DX disbanded in 2007, they didn't feel too bad about interrupting the match of a former member of Rated RKO. They were mildly disappointed though to find out that the match ended earlier than everyone thought it would, so as Jeff Hardy's music started to play and Orton stumbled backstage, Shawn quickly called the production truck to announce the change of plans.

_Are you ready? _Echoed throughout the arena as the fans went wild. "This can't be, JR… DX, here, tonight!?" Jerry "The King" Lawler said from ringside. "It is, look!"

Hunter and Shawn walked out, each of them fully decked out in DX gear and carrying a bucket of crushed ice that was slowly turning into slush and a large scoop. They used the scoops to throw the icey water out into the crowd as they slowly made their way down to the ring. When they reached the ring they set down the scoops and threw the remainder of the water out into the crowd, effectively soaking the people closest to the ring. The crowd was still cheering madly as they climbed into the ring and onto the turnbuckles, crossing their arms into X's over their heads. They climbed onto the opposite turnbuckles and did the same thing, before jumping down and standing in the center of the ring, forming two large X's with their bodies to do the crotch chops that would set off their pyros.

To say that Shawn and Hunter were pumped would've been an understatement. They were feeding off of the mad energy from the crowd, loving the feeling of having thousands of people chanting "DX! DX!" for the first time in months. Shawn was running in circles are Hunter, who just tried to suppress a grin at his friend's energy. When Shawn finally slowed down he grabbed a mic that was passed to him and held it out for Hunter like he usually did, barely staying still long enough for him to grab it.

"I told you I'd be back," Hunter said, the crowd finally quieting down a bit as they heard him start talking again. "I told you I'd be back with different music and here I am with the Heart Break Kid, Shawn Michaels, in DX again!" The crowd cheered again and Hunter paused for a few moments until the noise died down a bit. "Now that I'm out here though, I need to get a question answered. Are you ready?" The crowd went wild, but Hunter didn't care. He climbed onto one of the turnbuckles "No, I said, ARE YOU READY?" Although it hardly seemed possible, the crowd cheered even louder than they had before.

He jumped down and went back to the center of the ring. Shawn was already there, crouching down for Hunter's next few lines. Hunter stood in front of him, crouching down slightly as well, and said, "Then, for the thousands in attendance, for the millions watching at home," he paused for a moment before continuing. "And for the broken air conditioning," the crowd booed at the mention of the heat. "Oh come on, I know its pretty bad- alright, it's completely awful- but that's why we had the ice. Besides, if it wasn't so damn hot we wouldn't have gotten permission from Vince." On cue, the sound from the video began playing, with Vince yelling out for the whole world to hear that DX could reunite for all he cared. Hunter crouched down again and started to say DX's catchphrase, but he was interrupted by Vince McMahon's music beginning to play.

"What the hell do you two think you're doing?" Mr. McMahon snarled from the top of the ramp.

"Why, Vince, I thought you knew, seeing as how you basically told us to do this," Hunter said in a mock-innocent voice.

"You know damn well that I was not serious about you reuniting DX tonight!" The chairman snapped. "But since you two are already down there, why don't we have a match tonight?"

Mr. McMahon was cut off by Shawn, who had grabbed the mic from Hunter. "Now, now, Vince, I think the heat's starting to get to you a bit, making you so hot headed. Why don't you _cool down_ a bit?" On cue, Mr. McMahon was showered with what appeared to be, on closer inspect, water dyed the traditional DX green. He spluttered and tried wiping it out of his eyes, a rather difficult task when the rest of him was just as soaked. He finally gave up and, after one last glare at the two men standing in the ring, he stumbled backstage, away from DX and the crowd that was cheering for them.

"You know, it's rather funny about that," Hunter commented as he pointed towards the green water spilling along the ramp. "It was kind of a last minute thing, you know? We were actually raking our brains for awhile to come up with something to dump on him, but we couldn't come up with anything we could get last-minute that would top the slime we dumped on the Spirit Squad or the shit Vince and Shane got, so why bother trying when water would work just as well?"

He passed the microphone off to Shawn who grinned and finished with his traditional line, "And if you're not down with that, we've got TWO WORDS FOR YA!" He thrust the mic into the air as the crowd yelled out the response and DX's music started to play again. It had been a short reunion, but it had been a good one, especially with Mr. McMahon's decision to put them in a match later that night. Hunter and Shawn couldn't wait to actually wrestle as DX again, since it seemed like these reunions were getting farther and farther apart. Still, the promise of eventually reuniting for permanently had been made and both Shawn and Hunter were determined to make it work.

_After the 2008 WWE Draft_

Shawn waited for Hunter to return to his locker room a couple of weeks after their impromptu DX reunion. They had gotten hell for not telling anyone of their plan's ahead of time with everyone claiming that they disrupted the show for not following the storyline, but the fact of the matter was more and more people had been tuning into Raw in the weeks following the reunion in case Hunter and Shawn would get back together for another night.

Now, however, there wouldn't be anymore random DX reunions. Hell, there wouldn't even be a planned DX reunion anytime in the near future. It had been the 2008 WWE draft that night and just before the Mr. McMahon's planned accident one of the biggest changes of the night had taken place- Hunter was going to Smackdown.

Shawn had guessed that a top superstar would be moving to Smackdown, but he never thought it would be his friend. He never thought that it would be Hunter that would be leaving Raw that night. What hurt more than the thought of him leaving though was the fact that he probably knew about it ahead of time, which prompted the question of whether or not he knew the promise he made a few weeks ago about the DX reunion was just empty and meaningless.

The door to the locker room opened and Hunter walked in. He saw Shawn standing there waiting for him and sighed. "I knew you'd be here," he said. "And I just want to say that I didn't know about the change when we reunited DX for that one night. They told me after the show that night, told me not to plan any permanent reunions since I wouldn't be around for long."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Shawn knew he sounded like a whiny child, but he didn't care. He thought Hunter and him were close friends, so why wasn't he told about the move?

"I didn't want our last few weeks together to be just that- our last few weeks together," he explained. "I didn't want anything to be different because I was leaving." He looked down, not wanting to see the hurt in his friend's eyes. "Can you forgive me?"

Shawn closed his eyes. It hurt, it really did hurt, to know that Hunter would be on a different show. They had spent so much time together while they were on the road that their separate routines had just been molded together. They went to the arena together, they rented one car for the two of them- half the time they even roomed together at the hotel. Now, he wouldn't have Hunter around except for one or twice a month at pay-per-views or if they got together on the rare occasions they had time off. It would take awhile for Shawn to get used to not having Hunter always be there, but he could do it.

Finally, after a few moments of silence nodded; he could understand why his friend did what he did and he would live through this. "Alright," he said. "It's okay." He smiled weakly at his friend as Hunter finally looked back up at him. Both of them were doing their best to keep their emotions under control; neither of them wanted the last bit of time they had together to be marked with crying or sappiness.

"Guess we won't be having a DX reunion after all, eh?" Shawn was the first to break the awkward silence that had started to grow between the two of them.

Hunter laughed quietly and threw an arm around his friend. "No, I guess not," he said softly. "I guess not."


End file.
